If he is using a tall beck block and trying to oil it with a drill he needs to be sure that it has a grove in the bottom of the oiler to allow oil to circulate around the distributor to get to both sides of the cam galleries, otherwise only the drivers side gets oil pressure. A tall deck requires a longer distributor as well so a stock SBC-BBC distributor will not work. You have to buy one dedicated to the tall deck or it has an adjustable collar to be sure it seats properly.

Dave, would the cam or dist or pump turn with a short deck dist in a tall deck?

Barley, but it would be just touching not fully engaged and couldn't be trusted. It would explain why he is getting oil out of only one side as the passenger side oil has to pass around the distributor by way of the groove. If the distributor isn't low enough he is getting only a tiny amount of oil (what leaks).

Most aftermarket high performance manifolds (such as the latest Dart or Victor Super single plane manifolds) are machined with a deep pocket to accept a standard length distributor. The stock manifold and many of the older manifolds found on e-Bay do not.

I prefer a MSD slip collar ignition box ready distributor as that way I know the oil pump drive shaft is fully engaged along with the cam gear being fully meshed and that oil is flowing freely to both sides of the block. (Actually I prefer a crank trigger but that is a different issue).

figured it all out. the distributor had a slip collar that was adjusted for a factory intake on a tall deck block, but i also didnt include the 3/8's worth of intake spacers. adjusted it properlyand broke it in today. made 40psi of oil pressure the whole time and ran like a bear. when i idled it down after it had a little idle surge to it which i thought was cool. i had a smile on the whole time.

and also dave, your right, the crappy oil pump primer i was using didnt have the collar on it to trap the oil at the bottom. my friend brought over his nice primer thats actually made out of a distributor and oil came out of every rocker._________________"Aerodynamics are for people who can't build engines." -Enzo Ferrari

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